It
is no bigger than the end of your thumb, but this fruit has been worth its
weight in gold, a symbol of peace, a prize of great honor, the catalyst of
wars, light for civilizations, a delicacy for kings, sustenance for paupers,
and the life blood of some of the greatest civilizations the world has ever
known. The fruit of the olive tree must be cured, or its taste is sadistically
bitter, but the olive’s versatility has made it one of the most important
agricultural, cultural, and industrial foods in history.

Early Civilizations – the Levant, Mesopotamia, and
Egypt

No
one knows exactly when man ate the first olive, or pressed the first oil.
Perhaps an olive fell into the sea, cured to ripeness, and floated onto the
shore to be eaten by an animal. We do know that there is evidence of the
cultivated olive in the paleontological studies of the Paleolithic and
Neolithic ages (Bartolini 13). Regardless of its origin we do know the olive
was alreadyan accepted food item upon the
founding of early civilization. Popular thought places the earliest olive
trees in the Levant (what is now modern day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and
Palestine), where itis an indigenous plant.
Its cultivation dates as early as the fourth millennium BC (Brothwell 154-155).

In
Mesopotamian Society, olive oil was not prized as a cooking product. Only the
underclasses were known to consume its fruits. The local nobility used sesame
as the cooking oil of choice for frying and flavoring (Brothwell 153).
However, olive oil was used as a lighting fuel. Unlike many other oils, which
smoke when burned, olive oil burns without smoke and residue, and is used as
fuel for oil lamps.

Early
Jewish society also possessed knowledge of the olive’s uses, doubtless due to
their cohabitation with the Mesopotamian and other Levantine cultures. The
Jewish people were expected to provide a tithe of fine olive oil to keep temple
lamps lit (The Bible, Exodus ch 27, v. 20, Leviticus ch. 24, v2). The
Jews also understood the olive’s other properties, using it as a cleansing
product and in food preparation. Olive oil was used in the ordination of the
sons of Aaron as the priests of Israel, to cleanse and consecrate the alter for
seven days, after an initial sacrifice, and as a final offering in combination
with offerings of wine, meat and bread (The Bible, Exodus ch. 29,
v.2-40). Not only did the olive have practical use in Jewish society it also
gained symbolic significance in their mythos. In the story of Noah and the
flood, the olive is seen as a symbol of peace and subsistence.

And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo,
in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah know that the waters were
abated from off the earth (The Bible, Genesis ch. 8, v11).

With the
presentation of the olive branch, not only did Noah know of dry land, and the
passing of God’s wrath, but that he would also have food, lamp oil and wood for
heat and shelter.

Another
story tells of the Israelites desire for a king, using various trees as
symbols. The olive tree is shown the highest honor as the most important tree
in that it is the first to be asked.

The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over
them; and they said unto the olive tree, reign thou over us. But the olive tree
said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, where with by me they honor God and
man, and go to be promoted over the trees? (The Bible, Judges ch. 9,
v.8-9)

The fig tree
and cedars are also asked, but only the thorn bush is willing.

For
all its importance in Middle Eastern Asia, the cultivation and importance of
olives was not exclusive to Mesopotamia and the Levant. Olive cultivation was
also known to the Egyptians, in an area covering most of the Nile delta, from
Lake Mareotis to the areas west of the Canopic branch (Mark 98). Not only were
Egyptian olives a dietary item, but oil was extracted from the raw fruit
(Brothwell 155). Again it saw use as a fuel for lamps, and as a cleansing
product, but was also used in the preparation of perfumes, and salves. The
Egyptians also used oil in religious ceremonies by anointing with it and using
it to light temples. It is know from Egyptian historical records that Ramseses
III had olive trees planted around the Temple of Thebes to be offered to the
god Rà
(Bartolini 29). The discovery of the method by which oil was extracted was
attributed to the goddess Isis (Bartolini 38).

Egyptian
oil was considered to be of low quality and yield. As demand for oil
increased, the Egyptians began importing it from surrounding cultures. This is
particularly noteworthy, as early olive oil was more than likely hand-pressed
and wild olive trees produce only small amounts of oil (Brothwell 155). This
clearly indicates organized cultivation of olive trees and that oil pressing
for export occurred in these surrounding regions. Despite this work intensive
process, oil and olives traveled over the land trade route between Egypt and
Palestine, satisfying the area’s consumption needs. During frequent Egyptian
civil wars, the Lower Kingdom was often cut off from the olive producing regions
in Upper Egypt. There is much evidence that during these periods of
instability, a sea trade route from southern Mesopotamia around the Arabian
Peninsula to the Lower Kingdom of Egypt became a thriving avenue for the olive
trade (Mark 120-125).

Though
the cultivation, processing and use of the olive was not as sophisticated as we
find in later cultures, olive oil lights the early civilization and feeds a
large numbers of citizens in these societies.

The Greeks

Other
societies cultivated olives, but Greek society perfected it in every aspect:
cultivation, exploitation, and consumption (Rios 101). One of the oldest
written records of olive production is a set of tablets from Crete, produced
under the rule of King Minos in approximately 2500BC. Even the Cretan palace
had its own olive press, and one can still see the surviving 5 foot tall oil
amphorae housed in its ruin (Dolemore 14).

Oddly
enough, the earliest Greek societies did not use the olive in the methods
popular to the surrounding and earlier cultures. The Mycenaean Greeks used
torches for light and animal fat for cooking. Additionally, there is no
evidence of olive consumption or curing. Olive oil was used exclusively as a
washing product in the manner of soap (Murry 44). The Mycenaean olive and its
cultivation is described by Dr. David Hanson in his work The Other Greeks:

From our scanty sources – archaeological remains and
the Linear B records – Mycenaean viticulture and arboriculture were not
advanced, in the sense that the range and number of domesticated species of
fruit trees and olives were very limited. The total acreage devoted to
successful vineyards and orchards of productive varieties was relatively small.
Hence the harvests of the species must have been disappointing given the
equally low intensity of labor and productivity in only a moderately populated
landscape (Hanson Other Greeks 30).

Like their
Mesopotamian counterparts the Mycenaean Greeks found the wild olive produced
little oil and scarce fruit, evenwhen intensive
methods of processing were applied.

With
the rise of the Peloponnesian Greek society, the olive’s status rose. Olive
oil replaced animal fat as the primary cooking fuel and the olive itself is
consumed as food. Though still used as a cleanser, it took on the role of
lubricant, lighting oil, wood fuel for fires, and staves for farm implements
(Hanson Other 78). Its leaves are often taken as an infusion against
hypertension and a diuretic (Dolemore 23). The increased breadth in olive use
can be directly linked to technological advances to production and processing
techniques.

The
Classical Greeks had a greater understanding of grafting and propagation than
earlier peoples. Following the Third Punic War, the Greeks spread large-scale
cultivation, consumption and commerce as far as Hispania, and cultivated
varieties specifically suited to various climates and soils (Hanson Other
34-35, Rios 101). The Greeks used skills in pruning and fertilization to
increase product yield from a single tree (Hanson Other 67). Since the wild
olive tree produces a crop only once every other year, Greek olive farmers
adopted the practice of crop rotation, allowing a good crop to be produced
annually (Hanson Other 74).

Unfortunately,
the inventive Greek olive farmer with his annual income soon became an outsider
to mainstream society, as his stability made him less dependent on the
city-state and increasingly isolated from its politics. Frequent wars between
city-states also engendered isolation between the agrarian Greek and his civic
counterpart (Hanson Other 78). In an effort to keep the olive farmer
connected to the polity, Greek society developed many laws and regulations
seeing to their prosperity and protection. Solon, chief magistrate in 594 BC
and founder of the Athenian state prohibited the export of agricultural
products, with the notable exception of olive oil (Murry 198). This would
indicate that even though olive oil was in high demand locally, cultivation was
such that a surplus existed, and money was to be made in export. Another
Athenian law punished uprooting. This law included stumps as well, due to the
indestructible nature of the tree. A single stump, if properly tended, could
generate a new crop in 5 to 7 years’ time (Hanson Agriculture 64-67).

During
the Punic wars, Sparta enlisted whole companies of men outfitted and trained to
destroy olive crops in neighboring Athens. Fortunately, for the Athenians,
this caused relatively minor crop disruption, as the Spartans only engaged in
the removal of trunk and limb, not the time-consuming process of root
destruction. Root destruction, or bark removal is the only way to manually
kill a mature tree, and if a bark-stripped tree is discovered in time, it can
often be saved by the application of cloth bands. The trees are also not
easily burned. According to Greek myth, the olive tree in the Acropolis was
burned but sprouted again the following day (Hanson 57-63).

The
olive was important to Greek society beyond its daily uses. As in previous
cultures, it became a symbol of strength and sustenance, and appears in myth,
literature, and societal events as a cultural symbol. Greek author Hesiod,
also a farmer, writes of the life of the farmer as he cultivates his olive crop
in Works and Days. The ships in the Iliad were known to carry
olives in their food stores, and Odysseus’ bed was a massive olive trunk.

According
to legend, when the Atticans sought a name for their great new city, they asked
the gods to give a gift, and the one most useful to man would receive the right
to name it. Poseidon gave man the horse, and Athena gave man the olive tree.
Though the horse had obvious use, the olive tree was light, warmth and
sustenance; all things man cannot be without. That city is still known as
Athens (Hamilton 269). Another myth describes Hercules thrusting his staff
into the ground, and producing the olive tree (Rosenblum 10).

The
olive was so prized in Greek culture that winners of the Olympic Games were
crowned with its leaves and given its finest oil as the winning prize. The
earliest Olympic flame was a burning olive bough, and the contestants were
covered in so much olive oil that the Greeks had a special knife call the strigil that was used to scrape it from
the skin (Rosenblum 7).

The Romans

If
the Roman Empire was a chariot, it was the olive that greased its wheels.
Roman society was a dichotomy of farmers and warriors; they excelled at both
disciplines. The cultivation of the olive came to the Italian peninsula via
Greece in the 6th century BC. Under the Roman Empire, the number of olive
types and the quality of existing ones increased. The Romans advanced the art
of pressing with improvements to the earlier beam press, and the invention of
the newer screw press (Brothwell 156, Gies 24). On a humorous note, most of
the extensive information available on Roman beam presses is due to the work of
Victorian archaeologist H.S. Cowper in modern Libya. He meticulously recorded
hundreds of press sites as he was under the impression that the remaining stone
base structures were ancient religious monuments (Mattingly 35).

To
the Roman agricultural economy, nothing equaled the importance of the olive
growing estate. Two Roman emperors, came from the olive estates in Spain (Rios
102). Writers Marcus Cato and Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, illustrate
the working Roman estate, its components, methods of cultivation, and the place
of the olive in Rome’s social order.

Cato
described the main practical considerations involving an olive growing estate.
He recommended riding the surrounding lands and counting the communal olive
presses and wine vats before purchasing an estate (Cato 28). A low number of
facilities indicated low crop yield, as one only built what one needed. Each
estate should have an oil cellar and at least two oil presses (Cato 29). He
described the steps in preparing for harvest: making new baskets, mending old
ones from willow, making net pins from wood, testing the press, and possibly
constructing a new press beam from black hornwood (Cato 47). He also was one
of the first to set down recommendations for pressing techniques.
Contradictory to today’s standards, he recommended a high acid fruit and oil.
He laid down the process for making green oil by picking olives in the green
stage, washing them thoroughly, and milling those two days after gathering
(Cato 77). As olives sit waiting to mill, they begin to ferment. Cato
expected this two-day fermentation to improve oil yield or quality. He also
made recommendations for hardship situations such as low yield crops and
freezes. Picking olives in the black stage will stretch the yield, and produce
yellow oil. Frost frozen olives can be milled 4 days later, adding salt to
assist in oil flow (Cato 77). Cato’s final words of olive wisdom focused on
hygiene. He recommended keeping the entire process as clean as possible to
produce fine product (Cato 79).

Roman
writer Columella called the olive tree "the queen of trees", and
declared it the easiest tree to cultivate (Columella 71). Columella turned his
attention to the art of botany rather than the practicalities of the estate.
He sat set down a simple rule that deemed large breeds best for consumption,
and small varieties for oil production. He listed the nine common types of
olive as Posia, Licinian, Sergian, Nevian, Culminian, Orchis, Royal, Shuttle,
and Myrtle. Posia, Orchis, Shuttle and Royal, were listed as olives for fruit
consumption. Posia was marked as superior and could also be used green to produce
short shelf-life oil. Licinian is noted as producing the highest quality oil.
Sergian was noted as particularly frost resistant, and had the highest yield
production under any conditions (Columella 71-73). He helpfully provided
extensive instructions on pruning and fertilizing for the new estate owner
(Columella 71-73).

Rome’s
appetite for the olive was vast. Cato describes the olive as the staple of the
middle class and peasant diet. Windfall olives and low yield types were picked
out for the peasants and the remainder made into oil or preserved in brine with
layers for fennel and mastic on top and bottom. The oil and preserved olives
found their way to the plates of the upper classes. Cato also set out the
appropriate olive oil allotment for the peasantry at one pint per month
(Brothwell 156). Fresh olives were often kept in the household for the hand
pressing of emergency lighting oil as Roman olive oil could turn bad quickly
(Bothwell 156) Not only were olives food and the oil used as a fuel and food
ingredient, several other purposes emerged in Roman society. In addition to
the previous use as a cleaning product, it saw use as a cosmetic and perfume
base and its use in medicaments greatly increased (Mattingly 33). One of the
most interesting uses was in the practice of midwifery. Roman writer Pliny the
Elder made several recommendations for olive oil based salves in his work Historia Naturalis. Most of
Pilny’s recommendations were discounted by the work of Soranus, in his book Gynecology. Soranus recommended
the Roman midwife have the following items at her disposal: olive oil (clean,
not previously used in cooking), warm water, olive oil based warm fomentaions (ointment to be applied to
the body), soft sea sponges, pieces of wool, swaddling bandages, a pillow,
aromatic herbs and spirits, two beds (one for delivery, and one for recovery)
and a room of medium size and moderate temperature. Olive oil is recommended
to clean the newborn’s eyes and to use warm in bladders in the manner of a hot
water bottle (French 1).

This
widespread use of the olive and its oil spread with the empire: wherever Rome
went, so went oil. Demand on the peninsula itself was so great that import was
essential to keep the oil flowing. The area of North Africa alone produced
18,000 metric tons of oil or 30 million liters per annum. This equals 350,000
large Roman oil amphorae. This area was readily accessible via established
trade routes and provided cheap, available labor (Mattingly 37). In describing
the Roman olive trade, it is best to examine one of its provinces, Roman Spain.
Roman Spain covers what we now call Catalonia, and according to Alicia Rio’s
presentation to the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking in 1988:

The golden oil of the silvery
Hispanic olive trees came to be the most highly esteemed of the empire.
Impressions made by amphorae with the epigraphic markings of Spain’s potters
have been found during excavations in Gaul, Brittany, and on the banks of the
Rhône, Rhine and the Danube,
proving the importance of Spain’s export potential.

Roman culture
was a society on the move. Armies accustomed to the comforts of home often carried
olives, and olive oil with them on campaign. The Roman outpost in Camulodunum,
modern day London, received a full 40% of the olive oil exported from Spain
(Salway 447).

The Post-Roman World

As
the Roman golden age waned, with the empire facing internal divisions and
invasion from the north, traditional olive growing continued and flourished in
the Middle East, mainly as it had since civilization’s awakening. Middle
Eastern culture, however, now used olive oil primarily for frying (Rios 102).
References to planting and harvesting times were written down in a more
methodical manner than seen in earlier cultures suggesting the olives continued
importance and improvements in previous agricultural methods. The Yemeni
Almanac commissioned by Third Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf ‘Umar ibn Yūsuf in 670 AD, lists
agricultural time tables for thirty-four tree crops including Zaytūn (Olive) (Varisco 182). According to this work,
on Tishrīn al-Thānī (November) or Dhū Muhla 6th day the olives were picked
in Egypt (Varisco 24). Olive trees were planted in Syria in Tishrīn al-Awwal (October), and some
types when ice was still on the ground in Kānūn
al-Thānī January). Olives were also planted Tishrīn al-Thānī (November) and Kānūn
al- Awwal (December) in Greece (Varisco 197-198). The calendar records one
olive festival, the Daytona Festival
of the Olive Branches (Varisco 78).

As
in other cultures, the olive’s use as metaphor in religious texts re-emerges in
the new Islamic faith. The Qur’ancalls the olive tree a gift from Allah, the sacred tree (Dolemore 13).
From "The Light" 24:35 we are told:

Allah is the light of the
heavens and the earth; a likeness of His light is a niche in which is a lamp,
the lamp is in a glass, the glass is as it were a brightly shining star, lit
from a blessed olive-tree, neither eastern nor western, the oil where of almost
gives light though fire touch it not – light upon light – Allah guides to His
light whom He pleases, and Allah sets forth parables for men, and Allah is
cognizant of all things.

Though already
familiar to her northern sister, Catalonia, Islamic and Middle Eastern culture
eventually introduced olives to Southern Spain with the Moorish migration, new
crops, new rotations, and irrigation principles came with them to Andalusia.
Alicia Rio comments on this new olive culture:

…the groves in Andalusia are of
Arab origin. Geographically speaking, the eastern regions of Spain, situated
on the Mediterranean coast up to the Andalusian border are the territory of the
olivo and the olivar, while the area to the west and south of the regions…is the
home of the aceite and aceituna, the almzura (oil mill) and the alcuza
(oil bottle), words with the roots clearly embedded in Arabic and Moorish
cultures (Rios 102).

Unfortunately, the reconquered Christian lands were converted to sheep
breeding and grain growing, and with them most of the olive culture in Northern
Spain disappeared. Previous olive groves and gardens were abandoned (Sweeney
65). The surviving Spanish olive culture is the culture of the Moor.

Medieval World

The
fall of Rome saw a collapse of the olive trade in the former imperial colonies.
Without the empire to keep roads maintained and trading lines free of
marauders, long range olive trade subsided, and collapsed into the south.

The
olive and its oil had little importance to northern medieval culture. Though
the Romans imported oil to the regions in vast quantities to support its
administration, it had little lasting effect on the diets and habits of the
indigenous populations. The sole use remaining in Britain was maintained by
the wealthy, but possibly not as a contiguous custom. As animal oil was
forbidden by the Lenten tradition, olive oil was an expensive substitute. The
Earl of Northumberland imported thirty-six gallons of olive oil in 1512 at a
considerable price of £1.66 (Hammond 74). English recipes regularly
qualify olive oil as such as if the product were not common enough to do
without explicit identification. In old English it is oyle dolyf. (Scully 83)

In
southern Europe, France, Spain and Italy maintained olive cultivation for local
use, but not primarily for trade or export. The Cistercian order bought local
land from the southern French nobility for their compounds, known as granges.
Previously abandoned olive trees were often re-pruned and prepared for harvest,
for use by the order, or local trade (Berman 23-24). Not all granges were
directly connected to an abbey, and were maintained as one day’s journey way
stations between the grange, other important holdings, and urban areas. These
lands often supported olive orchards, as they were easily maintained with
minimal supervision (Berman 70). The Merced order leased land along the
Islamic-Spanish border and often gave oil from their land as gifts (Brodman 3
& 14).

Regardless
of its disregard as a food and export product, the use of olive oil in the
Bible makes it an important cultural item for the developing Roman Catholic
faith. Olive oil is an important ingredient in the formula for an anointing
oil set down in the Biblical book of Exodus (ch. 25, v. 22-23). It consists of
18lbs. of pure myrrh and cassia, 9lbs. of cinnamon sweet cane, presumably
infused in approximately 1½ gallons of olive oil. The Frankish King Clovis
presented himself for baptism by the Bishop of Rheims, Remmigius, on Christmas
day 496 AD. Tradition holds that the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove,
descended upon the cathedral and presented Remmigius with an unction, or holy Ampulle, of anointing oil for the
baptism (Brown 44). It is through this oil that Clovis is anointed Christian
King of the Franks. Believed to have been in continual use, the unction, it is
claimed, never ran dry. It is again mentioned in written record at the
coronation of Louis the VII in 816 (Brown 56). He was crowned by Pope Innocent
the II, and "elevated as king by the unction of the holy liquor"
(Brown 43-44). Elizabeth Brown, in her work "Franks, Burgundians, and
Aquitanians and the Royal Coronation Ceremony in France", asserts that in
the French coronation ceremony, it is the anointment with holy oil that confers
kingship, and not the placing of the crown upon the head (45). The Ampulle itself resided in the Cathedral
in Rheims, the site of Clovis’ baptism, which became the coronation place of
all the kings of France. It produced such a jealousy in the monks of St.
Denis, who guarded the equally important Oriflamme
(the sacred battle standard of France), that they stole it on two occasions
and twice received special dispensation from the Pope to transport it to Paris
for coronations (Brown 56).

The
olive is still an important food item in the Islamic world from North Africa
through Persia. Cookbooks are created with many dishes that grace the tables
of the Kings, Princes and Caliphs of the Middle East. The earliest extant
Islamic cookbook Kitāb al-Tabīkh(The Book of Dishes)
was compiled in the tenth century by Ibin Sayyār al-Warrāq and included earlier
recipe collections of caliphs and their courtiers (Zaouali ix). Earlier
cookbooks are known to have existed through chronicles, annals, and
encyclopedias (Zaouali 9). One such work also known as Kitāb al-tabikh, compiled sometime between 779CE and 839CE
by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī, is
said to contain a recipe for marinated olives with thyme. This preparation
takes raw black and green olives and packs them in olive oil with salt and
thyme. (Zaouali 9,65). As these cookbooks were known to contain dishes that
were from the noble table, it can be surmised that simpler, less costly
preparations existed in the common household.

The Renaissance

The
Renaissance in Italy saw a parallel renewal of the olive. It was as the
whisper of Roman taste still dwelt on the peninsula. As in antiquity, oil
continued to flow in the Roman homeland as a local product. Siena was a
particularly good example of the new local olive culture: local farmers
produced local oil, for local consumption, and not for trade (Balestracci 73).

Though
much of the countryside was converted to grain production in the medieval era, the
olive reappeared in force in the Sienese countryside around the fifteenth
century. Tuscany was a land of peasant sharecroppers, cultivating land for the
upper and middle classes (Balestracci 71-73). The local olive press is a later
Roman style screw press, turned by a beast of burden (Balestracci 74).
According to Duccio Balestracci in his work The Renaissance in the Fields:
Family Memoirs of a Fifteenth-Century Tuscan Peasant: "Sienese law of
the 1400s required peasants to plant four fruit trees and four olive trees a
year on farms of sufficient size" (71). The local peasantry further
improved agricultural techniques through several means. Sienese farmers often
grew complementary crops around the tree bases, providing better soil health
for both crops. Plowing and hoeing were regularly done to improve drainage,
conserving water. Lime was also added to the soil as a fertilizer improving
overall tree health (Balestracci 73-74).

Though
olives and oil did not yet re-emerge as an import and export item, their use as
a cooking product did. After the publication of the first known European
cookbook Le Viandier in 1370,
by Taillevent, cook to the king of France, cookbooks become desired among the
upper and middle classes. Author Bartolomeo Sacchi, also known as Platina, was
a courtier in the 15th century Gonzaga court. He was at one time a soldier of
fortune, preceptor to the young princes of the court of the Gonzaga, a papal
legal advisor, and Vatican librarian. He is best known as author of the first
printed cookbook De Honesta Voluptate Et
Valetudine (Honest Pleasure and Good Health). This book was annotations of
recipes developed by the cook of the Cardinal of Aquileia, Maestr Martino.
(Alberini 39-40). Sacchi set out not only to produce a cookbook but to
provide a guide to natural, healthy living. Sacchi was well versed in the use
of olive oil, according to Massimo Alberini, in his article "Bartolomeo
Sacchi Re-Edited" in the proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food
& Cookery on The Cooking Medium from 1986:

Platina’s notes on food…are
interesting in a very particular sense. We must bear in mind that the author
was a Lombard, living in Rome. Therefore he saw food from a particular point
of view. In respect of fats, for instance he attached special importance to
olive oil, distinguishing the lighter oil, poor to taste, made from unripe
olives, from the heavier, green oil mad from mature olives. He also
distinguished between oil from the top of the jar and that from the bottom. He
attached equal importance to the type of olive, preferring the larger sort,
resembling the Spanish olive of the present day, for conserving in brine or
honey…Platina attached less importance to butter, saying that it is used by the
people of the North who cannot get olive oil.

It is claimed
that the book was in the library of Catherine de Medici when she came to
France. This would not be unlikely, as it was a "best seller" for
over 50 years (Alberini 39-40)

As
Catherine’s influence in France waned, both olive oil and the unction of Rheims
reappeared as a cultural symbol. The Ampulle
and its contents were used to justify the divinity of kings in the coronation
of the first French protestant monarch Henry II de Navarre, and his Catholic
queen Margot de Valois. Huguenot agitator and royal advisor, Jean De Tillet,
cited the use of the Ampulle as
necessity when he redrafted the coronation ceremony for Henry. He asserted
that the consecration by anointing the Kings of France made them more loyal,
faithful, and moreover better rulers, as their powers came directly through God
(Brown 71).

Olive
oil is still used in medicinal preparations through the renaissance. One such
example comes from Culpepper’s Complete Herbal, written sometime between
1616 and 1654. In this guide to the uses of herbal remedies olive oil is used
as the base oil. It does not occur in the list of herbs, but appears in the
recipes as a general ingredient to making medicinal preparations. One such
example is a preparation for the healing of ulcers where olive oil is a primary
ingredient in the salve described (96).

What Remains

History always wants for a
conclusion. There are no longer legions carrying oil upon their backs towards
a new and better empire, there is no longer a monarch in France to be anointed
in Rheims, but the olive still remains much as it has since the beginning of
time. Olive oil is again a world export. Export figures havejust recently reached the levels of what was exported
by AncientRome. Today there are 800 million
olive trees in the world, growing on six continents. Olives are grown as far
away from the Levant as China, Japan, South America, The US, and Australia
(Rosenblum 12, Quest-Ritson 257-277). The price of the finest bottles of oil
can today easily exceed the cost of a modest meal. Nazi Germany, as the
Spartans before them, tried to remove the olive trees of Greece, and starve out
the local populations during war, all to no avail (Salaman 117). The olive
remains a part of contemporary art and culture. Later artists like Matisse and
Van Gogh painted the trees’ twisting boughs as they rose toward the Provençal sun. Italians watercolor
pictures of their trees for modern tourists. For all the improvements in its
cultivation and use, the olive’s role remains much the same as it has for
thousands of years. Even today, somewhere in the world, a man beats olives
into nets, to grind them with a press built in antiquity.

Balestracci, Duccio. The
Renaissance in the Fields: Family Memoirs of a Fifteenth-Century Tuscan Peasant.
Trans Paolo Squatriti and Betsy Merideth. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania
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Raffaella Prtruccelli. Classification, Origin, Diffusion and History of the
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2002.

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Agriculture, the Southern French Countryside, and the Early Cistercians. A
Study of Forty-three Monasteries". Transactions of the American
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Olive Oil Council. International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives,
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Copyright 2010,2011 by Jane
Bretz. <b3zsgirl at yahoo.com>. Permission is granted for republication
in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses
change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is
notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in
a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found
this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so
that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.